The Best and Worst of Wuthering Heights
Adaptations from 1939-2009
Adaptations of classic novel by Emily Brontë, done right? Or not.
After doing a bunch of research on the various adaptations of Emily Brontë’s classically acclaimed novel, Wuthering Heights, I’ve discovered that there has been a plethora of films produced that are based on the book from as early as 1939 to as current as 2021, as well as a music video created in 1978 by Kate Bush, and a literary course on the book done by Russell Jaffe.
Considering the amount of viewing material on Wuthering Heights that’s available to us, and the fact that it would take many weeks to cover it all, my goal is to simply show you what I consider to be the best film adaptation and the worst. I will give my reasons for my choices, though they are simply my opinions, and in the end, you must make your own based off of how you interpret the book versus the movies.
Who was Emily Brontë?
Emily Brontë was a 17th century novelist and poet who was born July 30, 1818, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England and died December 19, 1848, Haworth, Yorkshire.
She was one of three sisters and has been considered the greatest of them, though there is scant information available about her life mostly due to her secluded, retiring nature.
She only wrote one novel during her lifetime, and that is the book we are going to talk about in this post: Wuthering Heights.
The story opens with Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange, introducing himself to the estate’s owner, Mr. Heathcliff.
Lockwood quickly discovers that the environment in which Mr. Heathcliff lives, Wuthering Heights, is extremely unorthodox and rife with conflict, a state that has Mr. Lockwood wondering what drama he has instilled himself into.
Upon returning to his station at Thrushcross Grange, he delicately approaches Mrs. Dean, the housekeeper, with inquiries into the situation at Wuthering Heights.
This book is her narrative, her tale of love, hate, woe, and degradation, all pulled and compiled from her memories, memories of her time with the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights.
The Main Characters
- Catherine Earnshaw Linton – Daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Earnshaw, born 1765, sister of Hindley Earnshaw, wife of Edgar Linton, mother of Cathy Linton, died 1784.
- Hindley Earnshaw – Son of Mr. & Mrs. Earnshaw, born 1757, brother of Catherine Earnshaw, husband of Frances, father of Hareton Earnshaw, died 1784.
- Edgar Linton – Son of Mr. & Mrs. Linton, born 1762, brother of Isabella Linton, father of Cathy Linton, died 1801.
- Isabella Linton Heathcliff – Daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Linton, born 1765, sister of Edgar Linton, wife of Heathcliff, mother of Linton Heathcliff, died 1797.
- Heathcliff – Origin unknown, born 1764, husband of Isabella Linton, father of Linton Heathcliff, died 1802.
- Hareton Earnshaw – Son of Hindley & Frances Earnshaw, born 1778, husband of Cathy Linton Heathcliff.
- Cathy Linton Heathcliff Earnshaw – Daughter of Edgar & Catherine Linton, born 1784, wife of Linton Heathcliff & Hareton Earnshaw.
- Linton Heathcliff – Son of Heathcliff & Isabella Linton Heathcliff, born 1784, husband of Cathy Linton, died 1801.
- Mrs. Ellen (Nelly) Dean – Housekeeper for Thrushcross Grange & Wuthering Heights at different times throughout book and narrator of story.
- Mr. Lockwood – Tenant of Thrushcross Grange.
Wuthering Heights – the worst movie adaptation, 1958
The 1958 version of Wuthering Heights was directed by Daniel Petrie and starred a popular cast of actors for their time: Richard Burton, Rosemary Harris, Denholm Elliott, Cathleen Nesbitt, and Barry Jones.
These memorable thespians of the screen showed their talents well despite the fact that the script that they were given was incredibly out of sync with the book.
Opening
The film opens with a violent snowstorm where the wind whips the snow in a diagonal curtain across the moors, obscuring Wuthering Heights from view, while Mr. Lockwood leans into the storm’s wrath on his way to visit his new landlord, Mr. Heathcliff.
Upon reaching the house, he climbs over the locked gate, tries to open the front door, which is also locked, then lets himself in by the side door and is met by an old woman who we are to assume is Zillah, and the old manservant, Joseph. Hareton Earnshaw and Cathy are conspicuously absent.
This, however, is incorrect. The book clearly begins with Mr. Lockwood arriving at Wuthering Heights, astride his horse, on a clear blue morning.
Once he arrives, he is met by Mr. Heathcliff, who is not enthused to have such a visitor and almost refuses to let his tenant enter the yard. At which point, Mr. Lockwood insists and is reluctantly allowed to enter.
According to the book, it is actually the second day in which Mr. Lockwood leaves his abode on foot, with intentions to visit Mr. Heathcliff, that he is met with the snowstorm.
However, the storm doesn’t begin until after he is let into the house by Hareton Earnshaw and stands facing its inhospitable inhabitants which include Hareton, Cathy, Joseph and, a bit later, Heathcliff.
As you can see, the scriptwriters for this film attempted to recreate the opening by combining the two scenes into one. This is however not the only example of this film going awry.
In the company of fiends
Ms. Brontë gave Mr. Heathcliff several dogs in the book to add a bit of flavor to the mix. These canine characters were not left entirely to the imagination but were described as distinct breeds, all ill-tempered and vicious.
After Mr. Lockwood first enters the house, he finds the dogs to be quite disagreeable and is soon attacked, at which point Lockwood calls them fiends.
Mr. Heathcliff rebukes Lockwood telling him roughly that the dogs are not pets and not to be coddled, stating that they would not have bothered Lockwood if he had not touched anything – in fact he indeed had not touched anything at all.
Now, in the film, Lockwood enters the home to find several dogs, none of which match the breeds in the book, and immediately picks up a puppy to cuddle it.
One of the dogs does bark at him a bit, but Mr. Heathcliff reaches down and pets it fondly, then leads it from the room. These two accounts do not match. But I’m not done yet.
Who are they really?
As stated in above, the story is narrated by Nelly Dean, the housekeeper, and we see her character throughout the entire book from nearly the beginning to the very end. So, what happened in the movie?
Nelly is nowhere to be found. Instead, the story is narrated by the second housekeeper to Wuthering Heights named Zillah. This is all wrong, not only because Nelly is the one who narrates in the book, but also because Zillah is just touched on lightly at the beginning and didn’t fully come into the story until much later.
When we first see Mr. Heathcliff in the book, he is 38 years old with a disagreeable temper and a cynical hardness to him that repels those around him. He is described as dark and forbidding in both look and aspect. In fact, he is portrayed as being fierce, cunning, and ruthless.
What we find in the movie does not give an accurate account of who this man was. Though his age appears to be close enough, the aspect of his character is not. The film shows him to be entirely too subdued, mild, and relaxed. There are times when he almost comes close to the book’s Heathcliff, but it still manages to miss the mark.
Not only does the movie assign Nelly’s role as narrator to Zillah, but she takes on Cathy’s role as well when speaking with Mr. Lockwood. Zillah does speak with Mr. Lockwood when he is snowed in a Wuthering Heights, but only to show him where he can sleep for the night. In this the screen writers really mixed it up because they have Joseph showing Lockwood to the bedroom instead.
Who is Joseph? Simply put, Joseph is a harsh old man who has been around Wuthering Heights from the very beginning and views the Bible as both a cudgel and a bullwhip to use on others. But this version of the movie shows him as almost kind.
Now, before I move on to the best adaptation, I do want to finish this section by saying that though the screen writers took liberties with the story and its characters, adding dialogue and scenes that didn’t belong, they did keep to the basic feel of the first two-thirds of the story leaving out the entire last third, ending with Catherine Linton’s death.
Wuthering Heights – the best movie adaptation, 1978
The 1978 version of Wuthering Heights was produced by Jonathan Powell and dramatized by David Snodin.
The main cast consisted of: Brian Wilde, Pat Heywood, John Duttine, Ken Hutchison, Kay Adshead, David Robb, and Caroline Langrishe.
The fact that these wonderful actors were cast in a film that portrayed this story most accurately, only served to be in their favor.
I do have a few things to say about this film that prevent it from being nearly perfect, however.
- They did add a small amount of additional dialogue that is not in the book.
- Catherine asked Nelly to bring her a bowl of gruel, but in the book it was dry toast.
- They did not show Nelly going to see Heathcliff to check on Hareton, and they neglected to show Heathcliff’s relationship with Hareton.
- And, finally, toward the end of Part 1, they have Heathcliff only going to see Catherine once before she dies, whereas the book clearly states that it was more than that.
This film adaptation was produced in two installments: Part 1 and Part 2., and while it was very well done, they don’t mesh end to end as I’d hoped they would. There is an important section of the book missing during the timeframe between Catherine’s death and when her daughter, Cathy, goes to live with Heathcliff. Even so, this is the best adaptation I’ve found of Wuthering Heights so far.
In Conclusion
I’d like to conclude by saying that Wuthering Heights is a must read and is well deserving of its place in history as a classic in literature. I have read this book many times over and deem it a valuable addition to my personal library.
I have also found that movies, when done well, often aid in our understanding of the book they were taken from and, when used together, enhance the individual’s literary experience. I highly recommend Wuthering Heights to anyone who enjoys something different.